No team may have more eyes on them this preseason than the Brooklyn Nets, who went out this summer with a “luxury tax be damned” attitude and added Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, Jason Terry and Andrei Kirilenko to a roster that already had 49 wins (but was bounced in the first round by a more disciplined, tougher Bulls team).

To get out of the glare of that spotlight a little, the Nets are moving the start of their training camp to the Duke University campus in Durham, North Carolina, the team announced. They will be there from Oct. 1 to 5.

If you’re wondering the connection, Nets GM Billy King played for Duke (he was the captain of a Final Four team). Well, unless you think the Nets are doing this just to make Mason Plumlee happy.

“With many new players and a new staff, going on the road for training camp will offer a unique opportunity for our players to bond and focus solely on basketball as they prepare for this season,” King said in a released statement.

But it makes some sense, the university has world-class facilities and it lets them get out of some of the spotlight glare that will be on them this season.

The Nets went to great expense to put together a roster they think can compete for a title — they have a current payroll of $102.2 million (according to SHAM Sports), which means under the new escalating luxury tax they will owe $87.2 million on top of that. It’s a grand total of $189.4 million for just the roster.

A roster that is on the edge of contention but needs a lot of things to go right (I would still have them a step behind at least the Heat, Bulls and Pacers). It really comes down to how much Garnett can help turn the defense around (and if he can stay healthy to do it). The Nets are going to score plenty — they had the ninth best offense in the NBA in points per possession last season — and guys like Garnett will be a big upgrade on that end over Reggie Evans. The Nets will have a top five offense.

But their defense was 18th best in the NBA. Can KG, playing less than 30 minutes a night with a number of days off, lift that defense to the top 10 in the league or higher? Can first-year coach Jason Kidd put in a system that can lift the defense way up the ladder? If so, the Nets are dangerous. If not… wow that’s a lot of money to spend to make the second round (at best).

It was one of the NBA’s most discussed tragedies — No. 2 pick of the Chicago Bulls Jay Williams, a college legend and a guy who after one season looked like a rookie with potential at the point, crashed his motorcycle, destroyed his leg and never played again.

To go from national champion at Duke and future face of the Chicago Bulls to a guy who might never walk again, to a guy who had the game he was driven to play taken away from him — and with nobody to blame but himself — would be hard for anyone to live with. And Williams was honest about not wanting to live at some points.

At his lowest point, Williams did more than consider suicide. “I remember lying in my bed,” he said. “And I’m just tired of being here. I didn’t want to be here anymore. I was so afraid to face people. And I didn’t really know who I was. And I didn’t really want anybody to see me. And I didn’t want to talk to anybody. I didn’t want to talk about it.”

Williams glanced at his mother, Althea Williams, as he recounted the story. He continued: “I mean, to the point where I sat there, and I had this pair of scissors in my hand. I just kept going on my wrist. I wasn’t trying to go sideways. I was going vertical. I didn’t want to be here. At all.”

It was his mother that stopped him and it was her that made sure he didn’t go there again. She is still a crucial and close part of his life.

Go read the entire story, a few paragraphs can’t do it justice. As he says, he’s moved on and he doesn’t want pity. Williams got all the way back to the D-League but realized it was not going to go beyond that, his body wouldn’t let it. An adjustment from that would not be easy for anyone.

He works for ESPN as a college analyst and he lives a good life. One different than he imagined, but a good one. As a fan of the game it’s hard not to think about what might have been for him. But it’s hard not to be happy for him that he has found his peace with everything.

Grant Hill left Phoenix for Los Angeles, but nobody in the Valley of the Sun really holds that against him because he’s going to the Clippers and, while they certainly will be good, nobody really hates them yet. Everyone kind of shrugs at that move west.

It’s going to be interesting to see the reaction Suns fans give Nash when he returns to Phoenix in a Lakers jersey. It’s not going to have the venom that Dwight Howard will get upon his return to Orlando, mostly because Nash handled his exit with class and most Suns fans accepted the idea of him spending the last couple years of his career chasing a ring.

But with the Lakers? That changes the vibe. Suns fans hate the Lakers. (Really, the fans of 29 teams hate the Lakers.)

I expect a more mixed reaction, because that was the one place Nash could go that it wouldn’t sit well in Phoenix.

Shane Battier is an NBA champion, and there may be no other member of the Miami Heat team that seemed to savor the experience of the finals and winning than the veteran forward.

But it was Battier’s Duke connections that helped guide him to Miami.

When Battier was a free agent following the lockout, he got a call from Heat CEO Nick Arison — a former Blue Devil who was the team manager while Battier was in college and won a national title. They were friends and had a connection.

Battier said he received a call of congratulations from Duke basketball head coach Krzyzewski, who has seen just him and Danny Ferry leave Durham to become NBA champions during his tenure.

“[Krzyzewski] was the one who wanted me to go to Miami more than anyone else,” Battier said. “In the end, like always, he was right.”

For some of you out there, Duke combined with Miami may be two-thirds of the Axis of Evil along with the Illuminati. But in case your curious, when asked during the NBA finals whether he got more Heat or Duke hate Battier said it wasn’t close — Duke in a landslide.